Monday, June 10, 2013

I know this is totally random given the usual content of this blog, but I thought it might be helpful to some of you, or perhaps that someone would find it via Google search who would appreciate the information.

Boyfriend has a pretty bad case of seborrheic dermatitis: his scalp is consistently raw, itchy, bumpy, and red, and is naturally oily but produces an excessive amount of dry flakes. He has
tried tons of shampoos & leave-in treatments, including
prescription products, to treat it. While lots of them have improved his condition, none have
made it more than about 50% better. After doing a ton of research online, I
suggested to him that we try this scalp mask (well, it's ideally meant
to just be on his scalp, but it really ends up being a "scalp and hair"
mask). It turns out that it's making a world of difference for him, so we thought we'd share it with you!

I
mix about 9 parts raw and unprocessed honey with 1 part pure tea tree
oil - about 2-3 tablespoons of this mixture is enough for his entire head -
and massage it into his scalp with my bare hands. (He loves the head
massage he gets out of it, too!) We leave that mixture on for 2-3 hours; he often wraps a
plastic bag around his head during this time so he doesn't get the honey mixture everywhere.
Then he just rinses it all out in the shower, easy as pie (he doesn't even need to shampoo afterward), and we're done. We do this
twice a week.

Boyfriend says, and I quote, "Three hours may seem like a
long time to keep this on, but I feel so much less self-conscious when I'm
not flaking everywhere. This is the best scalp treatment that I've ever
used, including prescribed medications." I'd also like to add that I've noticed his hair has gotten less oily since we started doing this, and it feels super-soft. He wants me to add that he recommends you keep a couple of paper towels handy while your scalp is marinating, in case a little bit of honey drips down the side of your face or neck.

Here are a couple of articles from the National Institutes of Health supporting the benefits of raw honey and tea tree oil on seborrheic dermatitis.

I hope this is helpful to someone! Happy to answer any questions you may have via the comment field or email. :)

I think it would definitely be worth a try. The honey and tea tree mixture isn't drying for him, I think it's just healing his scalp so it's more balanced and not going crazy with the oil- and flake-production.

If you have longer hair, I'd recommend rubbing the honey mixture in your hands first and then massaging it in your scalp with your fingertips like you would shampoo. That sounds obvious, but at first I was trying to part his hair and pour the mixture on a bit at a time, which didn't work so well - it took me a few tries with this to realize it worked much better to evenly distribute the mixture across my palms and fingers first!

Hi Kristina, this is v. cool article! My toddler son also had cradle cap when he was a baby (aka seborrheic dermatitis) but of course, in infant we don't use tea tree oil. I use extra virgin coconut oil which has mild anti-fungal property. Glad your boyfriend can benefit from this!

Hi, sorry for my delayed reply! He does best when he uses this hair mask routine 2-3 times per week - but I think he still sees some benefit from it even when he can only do it once per week - just not quite as much!